Several trainers might thumb the scales with multiple horses in the $75,000 Showing Up Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Saturday, but Layabout may give Patrick Biancone the strongest chance in the deep field. The 3-year-old gelding will return to his home track after an ambitious trip to Kentucky Downs in September.

DEL MAR, Calif. – A second Grade 3 win of 2025 in the $1.31 million Ladies Turf Stakes at Kentucky Downs on Aug. 30 was not enough to assure Special Wan of a place in the Grade 1 First Lady Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 4. She was stuck on the also-eligible list.

Saturday’s Grade 3 Goldikova Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf at Del Mar is the consolation race.

“This was our backup plan,” trainer Brendan Walsh said.

The featured race on Saturday at Churchill Downs, where a Breeders’ Cup watch party will also be held, is the $300,000 Bet On Sunshine Stakes for older sprinters.

Those evaluating the Bet On Sunshine until the last minute will be keenly watching the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar, which goes off at 3:41 p.m. Eastern, and the Sprint, which goes at 4:21. Several horses in the Bet On Sunshine – with a post of 4:48 locally – have faced a number of different entrants in those two races, providing a last class evaluation for this field as they assemble.

Day One Starter will attempt to back up a strong maiden win with a stakes victory Saturday when he meets the unbeaten multiple stakes winner Probably Dreaming in the $150,000 Nashua at the Belmont meet at Aqueduct. The one-turn mile for 2-year-olds shares a card with the $150,000 Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship. First post is 12:05 p.m. Eastern.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Let’s set the over-under for international wins on this Breeders’ Cup Saturday at 2.5, and it’s not a huge stretch to imagine horses who shipped to Del Mar from distant lands winning five. That would encompass the four turf races and the Classic.

ON SALE NOW: DRF Breeders' Cup Packages! Get everything you need to win and save big.

Criticism of the role played by computer-assisted wagering teams in the parimutuel pools has once again reached a fever pitch, spurred by late odds changes at the recently concluded Keeneland meet, posts on influential social-media accounts, and a longshot class-action lawsuit filed Oct. 24.

The debate is hovering over one of racing’s biggest weekends, the two-day Breeders’ Cup event at Del Mar in Southern California on Friday and Saturday, which traditionally presents a smorgasbord of betting opportunities for hard-core handicappers and casual fans.

DEL MAR, Calif. – She has won Grade 1 races in California, Canada, and New York in the last 12 months, was beaten only a head in her only loss this year, and has a consistent style of stalking the pace and delivering a successful rally.

There is much to like about She Feels Pretty in Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar, with one exception. She has a tough assignment from post 13 in a field of 14.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The Breeders’ Cup Distaff is no walk in the park for the favorite, or any of the 13 fillies and mares entered in the $2 million race on Saturday at Del Mar.

The filly wearing a bull’s-eye is front-runner Seismic Beauty, the 9-5 Distaff favorite after earning big figs in small-field stakes this spring and summer in California. Seismic Beauty is the one to catch in the 1 1/8-mile Distaff, race 7, but there is nothing small about this year’s field.

DEL MAR, Calif. – It wasn’t long after Bentornato had finished second in the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Sprint that his trainer Jose D’Angelo had already begun to think about next year and what it would be like to bring an older and more mature Bentornato back to Del Mar for another try in the $2 million Sprint.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The scratch of morning-line favorite Sovereignty from Saturday’s $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar changes the narrative of what was and, albeit to a lesser degree, still is a fabulous renewal of North America’s richest horse race.

The storyline of the best 3-year-old in training taking on a stellar group of older males is replaced by this year’s race being a rematch of the top three finishers from last year’s Classic. And given how terrific a race that was, a reprise is not such a bad thing.